Wartime streak, Day 5: Loss (1596-1569)

Today's loss, while avoidable, hardly came as a surprise. Because of the war, the appointment I was supposed to have with my surgeon last Monday got postponed to yesterday, but when I showed up at the hospital yesterday they told me there was a scheduling mixup and to return next Monday. Moments before I planned to sit down and log into Chess.com an air raid siren went off, and that came on the heels of a frustrating morning of Zoom classes.

For today's game Chess.com matched me with one mrpk87, rated 1619 out of Bangladesh. mrpk, the highest-rated opponent I've faced to date, blundered a pawn in the opening and was down to -3.77 on move 26, but then I blundered a rook and my position for the rest of the game was hopeless. I'm not discouraged by the loss, however, nor do I feel a need to avenge it with a tilt followup. There's no rush. My wartime record stands at 3-0-2, and Zoom classes are expected to continue for at least another week.

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Position 1: Black to move

Assigned the black pieces, I replied to White's 1.e4 with the French 1...e6. White developed a knight with 2.Nc3, and I struck at the center with 2...d5. White advanced with 3.e5, which the engine disapproves of because of 3...d4, but rather than attack and preempt 4.d4 I proceeded with the more thematic 3...c5. We each developed knights with 4.Nf3 Nc6, and when White invaded with 5.Bb5 I was pleased at the prospect of trading his light-square bish off the board and replied 5...Bd7. White's 6.d4 I knew to be a blunder and chopped with 6...cxd4. Having lost one center pawn, White proceeded to give up the other with 7.Nxd4, whereupon I capitalized with 7...Nxe5.

His bish under direct attack, Black retreated with 8.Be2, and I developed my as-yet-undeployed knight with 8...Nf6. White castled with 9.0-0, and I developed my bish off the back rank with 9...Be7. White prepped a disco on my e5-knight with 10.Re1, which I saw but by which I was unphazed, and I replied 10...0-0. White's 11.Bb5 was a dual attack, and I seized the opportunity to exchange light-square bishes with 11...Bxb5. White recaptured with 12.Ncxb5, and I offered to exchange knights with 12...Nc6. Ignoring, White pushed 13.c3, and I improved my queen with 13...Qb6. White set up another disco with 14.Be3, to which I replied 14...Bc5 -- an inaccuracy that brought the eval bar from -2.10 to -1.37.

1. Why did I choose 14...Bc5?
Up a pawn, I aimed to simplify. Moreover, White's pawn on b7 was weak; if the b5-knight were to move, the b-pawn would hang.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
White's top continuation, 15.b4, which he found, weakened his c-pawn but came with a tempo on my bish and gained space on the queenside. Moreover, my dark-square bish was a valuable asset and not worth trading for White's.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
My top three replies were 14...Qd8 retreating the queen, 14...a6 challenging White's b5-knight, and 14...Nxd4 initiating an immediate exchange. The second of these is the one I would hope to play if presented with a similar situation in the future. 14...a6 would have chased White's b5-knight away from my side of the board and left open the door to an exchange of knights on the c- and d-files.

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Position 2: Black to move

After White attacked my knight with 15.b4, four minor pieces came off the board with 15...Bxd4 16.Nxd4 Qc7 17.Nxc6 Qxc6. White attacked my remaining knight with 18.Bd4 and the eval bar showed -1.10, but it was only -0.29 after 18...Ne4.

1. Why did I choose 18...Ne4?
White had a backward pawn c3 that was defended once, so I double-attacked it. Furthermore, my pawn chain was pointing toward the queenside, hence it made sense to direct my forces there. Lastly, White's rook was attacking my knight and an exchange on f6 would damage the pawn structure in front of my king.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
In allowing White to threaten checkmate with 19.Qg4, I lost the initiative and had to react.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
White's best piece in the position is his bish on d4. I needed to be looking for ways to restrict its scope or trade it off. 18...Nd7 would facilitate the thematic ...f6 push, followed by ...e5 attacking the bish. What if 19.Qg4? With the knight on d7 and given White's weakness on c3, 19...e5 would work because after 20.Bxe5 Nxe5 21.Rxe5 White momentarily equalizes material but then 21...Qxc3 and the end result is that Black remains up a pawn, d5 is a passer, and White has to react to the queen-fork of his rooks.

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Position 3: Black to move

White's threat of checkmate with 19.Qg4 prompted 19...f6. His attack thwarted, White's attention turned to the imperiled c3-pawn with 20.Rac1 -- but my 20...e5 prompted 21.Be3, and after the prophylactic 21...Rf7 to preempt 22...Bh6 White gave up his c-pawn with 22.f3. 22...Nxc3 made my d-pawn a passer, which was a new reality on the board that I failed to appreciate. White continued 23.a3, and I pushed 23...d4. Exploiting the rook's pin on my knight, White double attacked with 24.Bd2. I mobilized my rook with 24...Rc8, White attacked my pawn chain with 25.f4, and after an exchange of pawns with 25...exf4 and 26.Bxf4 my advantage was a winning -3.67. It flipped to +M13 after 26...Qb6.

1. Why did I choose 26...Qb6?
White's repositioning of his bish on f4 meant his rook was the only piece attacking my c3-knight, and as a corollary my rook on c8 meant my queen was free to leave the c-file. I saw an opportunity for a disco check on White's king along the a7-g1 diag and chose the b6-square for that reason.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
Normally the queenside rook would be connected to the f-rook, but because of the threat to my g-pawn my f-rook was on the seventh rank and not the eighth. White's queen was targeting my rook on c8 and 26...Qb6 left that rook hanging.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move, 26...Qd7, would get my queen off the c-file, facilitate an advance of my d-pawn toward promotion, and offer a queen exchange under conditions favorable to me. It would also defend against White's next move, 27.Qxc8+, which effectively ended the game.